Rep. Jeb Hensarling says ‘Obamacare’ will become less popular over time

Texas Republicans’ fight for repealing the Affordable Care Act is far from over — even as the House moves toward yet another repeal vote later today, a symbolic gesture that has no chance of winning passage in the Senate.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Dallas who serves in the fourth-highest GOP leadership position in the House, reasons that Americans’ opinions on the health care law will continue to grow more negative after the Supreme Court ruled the mandate a tax.

“Many people who voted for Obamacare if the first place said they would never raise taxes on those who made below $200,000,” he told O’Brien.

Hensarling, the chairman of the House Republican Conference, appeared on CNN’s Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien earlier today.

Poll numbers have shown Americans are split fairly evenly between wanting to repeal the whole bill, excise parts of the bill, or to leave the bill alone. Public opinion on the Supreme Court decision upholding the law’s constitutionality also are closely divided.

Hensarling’s response: “I don’t worship at the altar of public opinion polls.”

He predicted that the numbers will shift toward repealing the law the longer it is around.

Hensarling linked the high cost of the health care law as the reason that companies aren’t hiring new employees, and will even cause a large number of layoffs in the future.

“Health care, this Obamacare, with $800 billion in new taxes, $1.7 trillion cost, which soon is to increase, is one of the great inhibitors of job growth,” he asserted.